What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? This may be a very challenging question to answer. Those who do not have a good understanding of it will often answer this question with a matter of fact, one-word answer: salvation. I don’t know about you, but that answer leaves me without a firm grasp on the baptism of the Spirit. This is sad, especially in light of the incredible amount of detail that the scriptures provide about the baptism of the Spirit. So, I hope to examine a number of scriptures that will make this topic easy to understand while giving us plenty of details that would make it impossible for us to give a one-word answer about the baptism of the Spirit ever again.

The first thing to note is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a symbolic, spiritual thing. Just by looking at the words “of the Holy Spirit” we can determine immediately that this is not a physical act, and it is not something that we would do, but rather what the Holy Spirit would do. This is not our baptism into Christ which is an act that we must accomplish by faith in Christ (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:35-38, 1 Peter 3:21). So then, as we go to the scriptures, we will see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was an act of God alone, separate from man, and even separate from whether men were saved or not. One last thing before we begin, it may be helpful to understand the word “baptism” as it truly is, not the transliteration “baptism” from the Greek word baptizo, but to understand the word as it is literally translated: immerse. This is the only translation of the Greek word (other than synonymous words that mean the same thing as immerse). This helps enrich our view of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is an immersion of the Spirit of God upon the world. Now, how did this happen? Let’s turn to the scriptures and see.

Many have had trouble understanding this topic because they immediately turn to the New Testament in order to understand the baptism of the Spirit, but the New Testament does not provide a lot of information about this. If we are looking to the New Testament for answers first, then we are way behind in understanding this topic; I liken it to placing algebra before learning elementary addition and subtraction. Some things must be learned first before pursuing a subject further. The Old Testament is the information superhighway on all things pertaining to the new covenant in Christ, including the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament certainly makes it clear that the Old Testament is our resource for understanding the baptism of the Spirit. After his resurrection, Jesus told his apostles to “wait for the promise of the Father”; the promise being: “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). We must go back in time to read the details of “the promise of the Father”. Also, in Acts 2:39, Peter tells the Jews on Pentecost that “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” So, the Jews under the old covenant had been well supplied with details promising the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We need to go back and look at the Father’s promise.

In Isaiah 32:12-18, God promises the baptism/immersion of the Holy Spirit. He describes the desolate and unfruitful state of men because of sin, then promises a day when “the Spirit is poured upon us from on high”. This outpour of the Spirit is certainly not described in a way that would give us the sense that this pouring out is a mere trickling stream or sprinkling, but a full immersing flood in the wilderness of sinful men. It was a baptism! The world of sinful men engulfed with the Spirit and thus immediately beginning to bear fruit for God. The wilderness of sin becomes God’s fruitful field.

In Isaiah 44:3-5, we see another image of this promise. Water is poured out on the thirsty and the dry ground. The dry ground is flooded (immersed/baptized). God likens this illustration to the coming of the Spirit after the ascension of Christ in the first century. In the promise from Isaiah, God called it the outpour of his blessing upon man.

We find a very interesting vision of the baptism of the Spirit in Ezekiel 37:11-14. Ezekiel sees a vision of a dry valley filled with dry bones. But God promises to the dry, dead, spiritual desolate bodies: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live”. The outpouring of the Spirit brought a blessing, it bought the opportunity of life, spiritual life, for all who desire it. Then, two chapters later, Ezekiel is told by God that the baptism, or outpouring flood, or immersion of the Spirit will result in restoration from the captivity of sin and a restored relationship with God, what a blessing! (Ezekiel 39:28-29).

This discussion of Old Testament promises of the Spirit could not be complete without discussing Joel 2:28-32. The flood of the Spirit from on high would baptize the world with many great and miraculous blessings: “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” When was this promise fulfilled? That’s an easy one, when the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:4 Peter told the intrigued crowd: “this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Now, Joel didn’t say that just the apostles would be able to prophesy, he spoke of a much broader situation. Peter makes this point as well when he called the people to salvation, saying, “…you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. (Acts 2:38-39)”. Yes, they would all be beneficiaries of the great outpouring of the Spirit in those days. This does not necessitate that they all had miraculous abilities like the apostles did, though some did, but that they would enjoy the flood of spiritual restoration that was taking place. After all, Joel’s prophecy of miraculous things is only a small part of the promise of the outpouring/baptism of the Spirit. With the coming of the Spirit came life, fruitful life, and a restoration of the man with God.

So what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It was the immersing flood of all spiritual blessings in Christ that came through the Spirit by the reign of the Savior from heaven. This baptism by flood brought the opportunity of salvation to those who hungered and thirsted for it, and it gave all men in the first century the opportunity to respond to the gospel which was preached to all as a result of the outpouring of the Spirit which caused certain men and women to speak by inspiration of the Spirit among many other gifts which came with the pouring out of the Spirit. Some have viewed the baptism of the Spirit as a very narrow topic, believing it to be only something that happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. What happened in Acts 2 is certainly a part of the immersion of the Spirit upon the earth, but it is only the beginning of the flood. Peter is the first to admit that what happened that day was not just for the apostles; he said to the crowd who saw the Spirit come upon the apostles “this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16), he then proceeds to quote Joel’s prophecy, admitting that this isn’t exclusive to the apostles: “I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. and on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18). So Peter’s view of the baptism of the Spirit is not narrow, but he believes that this baptizing flood would have very broad effects, as he points out that this flood would be upon “all flesh” and that sons and daughters, menservants and maidservants will prophesy as a result of this outpour from on high. But this isn’t just Peter and Joel’s position on this, for John the Immerser had also spoken of these things. John prophesied, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11). When John said that Jesus would baptize “you”, who was the “you”? It certainly wasn’t the apostles! It was the Jewish nation whom he was speaking to in context. Now, that’s not how we like to think of the baptism of the Spirit, but that’s scripture.

While the scriptures which we have considered today and last week are using the pouring out of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit interchangeably, I expect that some would argue that that’s not true. For this, it is important to consider Acts 10 and 11. In Acts 10 we have the testimony of a gentile household being recipients of the pouring out or baptism of the Spirit. Luke testifies that the Spirit “fell” (Acts 10:44) and that he had been “poured out” (Acts 10:45). Then Peter gives his own eyewitness testimony when he said “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 11:15-16). Like Luke, Peter also said that “the Holy Spirit fell” but defines this outpouring as the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:16). Yes, Peter said that this gentile household was baptized with the Holy Spirit “just as we have” (Acts 10:47). So, the baptism of the Spirit was an outpouring upon the whole earth, Jew and gentile. It was a first-century event only. The Spirit is not to be poured out again, we are still recipients of the one and only immersion of the Spirit into all the world through the words of the Spirit in the new testament which resulted from the pouring out of the Spirit in the first century.       

What About Water Baptism? Others, who don’t belong to the church but denominational groups, have denied water baptism altogether, saying that the baptism that we hear about in the bible is always in reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This argument falls apart on so many levels, but let’s consider just a couple of simple and straightforward scriptures that show this denominational viewpoint to be error. If the baptism of the Spirit is the only baptism that the new testament speaks of, then why are we given the commandment to be baptized? Such as when Peter commanded Cornelius to be baptized (Acts 10:48), or when he commanded the Jews on Pentecost to be baptized (Acts 2:38). These are scriptures about water baptism for the remission of sins, such as we also find in the account of Phillip and the Ethiopian, when they went down into the water for the Ethiopian to be baptized (Acts 8:38). This is baptism in water, not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Recall the prophecy of the Spirit’s baptism, John said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11), so the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an action that we can do, such as water baptism, but it is an action that occurs from Christ: “He will baptize you”. This is most evident in the example of Cornelius, for Peter reported that those gentiles were in fact baptized with the Holy Spirit as Peter “began to speak” to them about the gospel (Acts 11:15-16). This was not their action, for they had not even heard the word of God, and therefore could not have had the faith in Christ that would lead them to salvation. It is after they were baptized with the Spirit that Peter looked for “water” so that they could be baptized (Acts 10:47). But why look for water if they were already baptized with the Holy Spirit like Peter said they were (Acts 11:16)? We see then that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a baptism of salvation, nor is it for the remission of sins. When the apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, this did not make water baptism unnecessary for them, they still needed to be baptized themselves in order to be saved. We see then that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a first-century event that occurred not as a result of men’s actions, but by the actions of Jesus. Jesus brought life, he brought spirituality back to this dry desert of sin. Because of the great things he has done in his sacrifice, resurrection, and ascension, he poured out the Spirit like a flood upon the earth, giving all the opportunity to hear the gospel word, repent of their sins, confess his name, and be baptized in water for the remission of their sins. And as Peter said, in this way alone would one truly be a recipient of the gift which the Holy Spirit brought. (Acts 2:38-39).

Article by Tanner Campbell